Plant of the Week: Pine, Loblolly

The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture does not promote, support
or recommend plants featured in "Plant of the Week." Please consult your local Extension
office for plants suitable for your region.

Plant of the Week

Loblolly Pine Latin: Pinus taeda

Loblolly pines often find their way into Arkansas landscapes, but their real value
is on southern tree farms.

On my window sill sits a fossilized seashell extricated from a roadside cut in south
Arkansas’ gulf coastal plain. I was drawn to this location by parallel bands of penstemons
I noticed marching across a pasture in straight rows.

On inspection, it became obvious the penstemons were there because of calcium secreted
from a series of ancient drifts of now fossilized mollusk shells. This low lying
land makes up about a third of Arkansas and is home to our state tree, the loblolly
pine.

Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) was selected as the Arkansas state tree in 1939. It was a fitting choice because
this species not only grows over a large part of the state it was and remains the
most significant timber species in the state. Its native range is from New Jersey
to Texas and includes 14 southern states. In all these states its range is defined
by the extent of the coastal plain.

Loblolly pines are a three-needle pine with the needles reaching 5 to 8 inches long.
Trees are fast-growing with a strong ventricle form. The lower limbs are intolerant
of shading and drop while young. Trees in open situations maintain limbs in a broadly
pyramidal form, but eventually lower limbs drop, concentrating foliage at the top
of the tree.

In cultivation, most trees are in the 50- to 70-foot tall range. Loblolly, also
sometimes called the old-field pine, is a prolific reseeder and quickly establishes
itself along road cuts and on abandoned land.

When you see a pine in Arkansas, it’s probably a loblolly. In the piney woods of
the southern counties it’s planted by the millions on 6-foot centers like a crop of
corn. This close spacing ensures a solid stand of pines will become established,
shading out hardwoods and producing the famously tall, branch-free boles.

After about a decade, half of the trees are cut for pulpwood, releasing the remaining
trees for a spurt of growth. Depending on the strategy used, additional thinning
cuts may follow. Usually, all trees are cut by the time they reach 35 to 40 years
of age.

But these trees are just saplings compared to the potentiality of the species. Almost
all of the trees of the virginal Arkansas forest are gone, but fortunately a few were
preserved in the Levi Wilcoxon Demonstration Forest in Ashley County near Hamburg.

The largest of these, a tree called the Morris Pine, has a circumference of 14.5 feet,
a diameter 4.6 feet and a height of 117 feet. It’s thought to be about 300 years
old. This remnant stand is all that remains of the giants foresters described a century
ago that routinely reached 140 feet tall with a diameter of more than 5.5 feet.

The fast growth, its characteristic of producing long, straight boles with few knots
and its tolerance of low lying or upland sites has made loblolly the dominant pine
for tree farm production across the South.

While a stroll in a tree farm, shaded by the canopy of loblolly pines marching out
across the landscape like soldiers in formation, lacks the interest found in a natural
forest, it’s not without its charm. The black silhouette of the rows of trunks and
the gentle song of the wind blowing through the needles appeals to the row crop farmer
in me.

Loblolly pines are often seen in landscape situations, though they are not an especially
ornamental species. They make a fast-growing screen, but when planted close enough
together to be effective as such they drop their lower branches as they age and their
effectiveness is negated.

The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture does not maintain lists of retail
outlets where these plants can be purchased. Please check your local nursery or other
retail outlets to ask about the availability of these plants for your growing area.